Explosive
Summary
A light-hearted war film that more or less seems to have inspired the much-better known film Three Kings, The Vultures is a great star vehicle for Belmondo, a superstar in his native France. He looks great in the film with a fit and nimble body in his early ’50s, and he was still very much in his prime here, willing to get in on the action with fisticuffs, shootouts, and just being cool. As directed by Henri Verneuil, the film is light, breezy, and fun, and should hit the spot for anyone looking for a good time at the movies.
Plot: French Legionnaires must escape a German battalion with billions in gold bars in Tunisia.
Review: After being almost completely wiped out by a German battalion in Tunisia during World War II, a group of four surviving French Legionnaires are stuck without ammo in a blasted out town with an impossible mission: Grab billions in gold bars from a Tunisian bank and bring it back to French occupied territory. Their plucky leader is Sergeant Pierre (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who always has a smirk on his face, and he comes up with a bright idea to fool the Germans to gain some ground and use a cannon to blast the Germans away, which miraculously works, and once the Legionnaires have the gold bars, Pierre makes it very clear he wants to steal all the gold and divide it up amongst his fellow survivors and they each go their separate ways, which doesn’t fly with one of the men, who insists that he’ll have Pierre and the others in front of a tribunal if given the chance. This leads to Pierre and the others to betray each other for the gold, which gives Pierre just enough leverage to get away with all the loot in a tank … which he must drive through German territory without being discovered. Being a “vulture” in the desert ain’t going to be easy work for Pierre, who might have just enough luck to make it out alive … but likely without the gold.
A light-hearted war film that more or less seems to have inspired the much-better known film Three Kings, The Vultures is a great star vehicle for Belmondo, a superstar in his native France. He looks great in the film with a fit and nimble body in his early ’50s, and he was still very much in his prime here, willing to get in on the action with fisticuffs, shootouts, and just being cool. As directed by Henri Verneuil, the film is light, breezy, and fun, and should hit the spot for anyone looking for a good time at the movies. Georges Delerue did the score.
Kino Lorber’s new release of The Vultures looks and sounds solid in high definition, and the disc comes with an audio commentary by two film historians, plus the trailer and a slipcover.